The graphic novel, March: Book One (2013), by Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and artist Nate Powell, shares how John Lewis’s productive behaviors as a young man allows him to be an effective force of change even in his school years. Born in Alabama in 1940, John Lewis plays a key role in the American civil rights movement. As a young person, John Lewis observes and thinks carefully about his surroundings, seeks information through newspapers, books, and radio, and involves himself with his community.

Reflect

March: Book One begins with a portrayal of the great John Lewis’s simple childhood ability to take stock of his surroundings. On the bus ride to school in the 1950s, Lewis notices that the roads and buses to school are different for white children and black children: “The county didn’t bother paving roads into ‘colored’ communities unless it was necessary for white traffic to pass through. Our bus itself was an old hand-me-down, just like our schoolbooks. I realized how old it was when we…passed the white children’s buses” (p. 48). He also notices that the white schools have “…nice playground equipment outside - nothing like our cluster of small cinderblock buildings with a dirt field out back for recess” (p. 48). Lewis sees the specific ways in which spaces for black children receive fewer investments than spaces for white children. On the bus ride to school, Lewis also remembers: “We drove past prison work gangs almost every day. The prisoners were always black. As were the folks working in the fields beyond them. You couldn’t help but notice” (p. 49). During his childhood in Alabama, Lewis observes the forced labor of black prisoners and the hard field work of free black people on a daily basis. One year, Lewis’s Uncle Otis takes him on a special road trip from Alabama to Ohio. Lewis understands that “Stopping for gas and bathroom breaks took careful planning. Uncle Otis had made this trip before, and he knew which places along the way offered ‘colored bathrooms’…it wasn’t until we got into Ohio that I could feel Uncle Otis relax” (p. 38). Lewis sees that within the United States, travel for people of color comes with challenges and dangers; he senses his uncle’s wariness during their journey throughout southern states. As a child, Lewis thinks about what race means for black children and adults in the United States.

Learn

As John Lewis becomes aware and interested in his surroundings, he actively tries to obtain as much information as he can. Lewis reads the newspaper and listens to the radio in order to learn about current events. In 1954, Lewis remembers:

I read a headline that just turned my world upside down. The U.S. Supreme Court had handed down its decision in the school desegregation case of Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka. The doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ - upon which the entire institution of segregation was based - had been ruled unconstitutional. I was so excited - surely everything was going to change. p. 53-54

The newspaper informs Lewis about national changes. What he reads about the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, turns his word “upside down,” and excites him. As he continues to find more information about the state of the country, he continues to become excited: “…one Sunday morning in early 1955, I was listening to WRMA…Dr. King’s message hit me like a bolt of lightning. He applied the principles of the church to what was happening now, today. It was called the social gospel” (p. 55-56). Martin Luther King Jr.’s words help Lewis make a connection between his religious beliefs and social justice. Lewis describes Dr. King’s words as electrifying for him. Also in 1955, the police arrest a woman of color named Rosa Parks when she refuses to sit in the back of a public bus on account of her race. People begin to talk about resistance and boycott the buses. Lewis shares, “I listened firsthand to accounts of what was happening. I followed it almost every day, either in the papers…or on the radio” (p. 59). Through reading and listening, Lewis learns about important changes in the law, contemporary leaders such Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, and the ability people have to change their environments.

Act

While he is still in high school, Lewis feels motivated to share his convictions with his community:

Dr. King’s example showed me that it was possible to do more as a minister than what I had witnessed in my own church. I was inspired. So, five days before my sixteenth birthday, I preached my first public sermon…I was nervous, but once I warmed up the congregation warmed up too. p. 60

As a teenager, Lewis overcomes his own fears to speak before his fellow church members. He believes in the importance of communication with others. In 1958, John Lewis attends Jim Lawson’s workshop on non-violence at the First Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Lewis and his colleagues decide to resist the practice of discrimination at the department store lunch counters, where staff members refuse to serve people of color. Before they go to sit at the lunch counters however, they must practice their non-violence resistance. Lewis relates, “…the hardest part to learn - to truly understand, deep in your heart, was how to find love for your attacker” (p. 82). Because peaceful protest is a challenge, the young people role-play situations they might encounter, and teach themselves how to remain calm and loving in their protest. The activists of the Nashville Student Movement, as they call their effort, begin sit-ins at the lunch counters, “and at 3:15 pm on May 10, 1960, those six downtown Nashville stores served food to black customers for the first time in the city’s history” (p. 120). March: Book One ends with the department store lunch counter victory. The integration of the lunch counter shows how Lewis and other young people come together to plan, practice and effectively enact resistance to injustice in their community.

March: Book One is a 2013 recollection of John Lewis’s coming of age in mid 20th century America. The graphic novel strives to show young people that if they pay attention, try to learn as much as they can, and ultimately act on what they believe is right, they can make positive changes in the world. John Lewis’s dedication to justice in the 1950s remains a relevant example to young people over seventy years later.

References

Lewis, J., Aydin, A., & Powell, N. (2013). March: Book one. Top Shelf Productions.